The women were inside the gym at 5420 Nave Drive around 8:30 a.m. when they saw the Marin Sanitary Service truck speeding down Marin Valley Drive and into the gym parking lot, Novato Fire Protection District Deputy Chief Eric Nickel said.

The women fled out the back door as the garbage truck struck a small sedan and both vehicles came crashing into the gym, Nickel said.

“The garbage truck was 100 percent in the building,” Nickel said.

The women had seen the truck coming because the front door of the small, two-room gym happened to be open—normally, the door is closed when the air conditioning is on, he said.

Firefighters at the Station 75, located around the corner, heard the crash and arrived within three minutes, Nickel said.

The driver of the garbage truck, whose name has not been released, suffered injuries that are not believed to be life-threatening, and was taken to Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Terra Linda, Nickel said.

It is unknown what caused the truck to crash, Nickel said.

Mardell Sarkela, chief administrative officer of Marin Sanitary Service, said the company plans to release a statement later Monday.

The crash badly damaged the gym, and the structure was red-tagged by the Novato building department, Nickel said.

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